King County employees are invited to participate in Identity-Based Affinity Spaces to engage and provide information and ideas on how King County can enhance its workplace culture, increase equity in workforce practices, and ensure inclusion and belonging for all employees.   

King County is particularly interested in hearing from on-site, customer-facing, and shift employees. Sign up for an Identity-Based Affinity Space by April 21 using the opt-in form.  

The Identity-Based Affinity Spaces are different from the King County Affinity Groups. They have been created specifically for the refresh project and assure employees they can gather face-to-face in groups with a shared identity and speak openly. 

Participating employees will be paid for their time (see FAQ for more details). 

Employees will be asked to share what’s working, what’s not working, and what can be improved surrounding the following topics:  

• Increasing equity in the workplace  
• Professional development, coaching and mentorship  
• Promotional opportunities (including interviews and onboarding)  

• Leadership being proactive and accountable in creating an equitable and racially just workplace 
• Meaningful access to leadership  
• Inclusion and belonging  
• Access to employee benefits  
• Creating a workplace free of discrimination and harassment (If you have a specific concern about your experience as a County employee, please see the anti-harassment policy for information about reporting those concerns.)  

Follow the Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan Refresh on Sharepoint.  

In recognition of contributions to all aspects of society by Americans of Arab descent and Arab immigrants, including science, business, culture, and social services, King County Executive Dow Constantine has proclaimed April 2023 to be Arab American Heritage Month.

“I encourage all residents to honor the contribution of Arab Amercians to our county, state, and nation,” the Executive stated. Read the full prolcamation below.

King County will not conduct an Employee Engagement Survey in 2023. The annual survey usually occurs in March of each year. However, due to staffing challenges the survey will not take place this year.

Listening to employees and actively addressing their concerns and desired outcomes is key to building a welcoming, supportive, and inclusive workplace culture, and we will seek other opportunities to engage with employees. The Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan Refresh project and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Benefits Review project offers multiple touchpoints for employee perspectives and feedback. And departments and divisions have their own mechanisms for inviting and responding to specific issues in their areas.

In lieu of a survey this year, the new engagement survey team will take a fresh look at the survey and adapt it to our current needs, recognizing that much has changed recently. They will also evaluate options for a survey vendor and develop standard practices for future surveys, so that new survey team members can onboard rapidly.

Meanwhile, we will continue to work the action plans we developed based on the results of the 2022 Employee Engagement Survey.

We look forward to listening and acting on your feedback in the 2024 Employee Engagement Survey.

From DNRP News

A productive collaboration between King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks (DNRP) and local staffing organization Weld Works not only resulted in the successful disassembly and recycling of offices and cubes on the sixth floor of King Street Center, it provided jobs and training to a diverse labor pool in need.

Weld Works is a non-profit serving the construction, manufacturing, and retail industries with purpose and heart by bringing together companies hiring in construction, clean-up, and general labor with a pool of individuals interested and ready to work to get the job done. The program connects people in transition, often from incarceration, to a path of dignified, long-term employment. 

The collaborative effort involved King County’s Green Jobs and Solid Waste Division’s (SWD) Construction and Demolition programs, as well as with the Facilities Management Division (FMD), and the Department of Human Resources getting together to arrange the partnership with Weld Works.

“The workers not only did a great job removing the cubicle walls and panels, they were able to recycle a lot of the material that otherwise would have been landfilled,” said Kinley Deller, SWD’s Construction and Demolition Project manager. What’s more, Deller said the collaboration resulted in FMD exploring future opportunities with Weld Works for the disassembly and recycling of panels, as well as furniture, for future County projects.  

Also as part of the effort, the County’s Green Jobs Program provided job application training to Weld Works workers assigned to the project.

“The purpose of the clinic is to better equip community members with resumes that reflect the work conducted on County projects as well as train participants on tactics to effectively navigate the NeoGov application system for open positions, growing the County pool of qualified applicants,” said Michael Carter, Green Jobs Program manager. 

Learn more about King County’s Green Jobs Strategy here.